Yes, that makes sense. I was just wondering if the target virus is already RNA encoded, if that provides any shortcuts. It sounds like maybe not.
Whereas the virus encodes the whole spike, the capsid protein and whatever else the virus needs to replicate like promoter sequences and an origin of replication. It is much larger and is replicate.
Basically it skips all the viral machinery and just codes for a small piece that identifies the virus to the immune system.